Spring wheat

Materials used in this chapter were published in the book: Biostimulant Albit for
increasing yields and protection of agricultures against diseases, A.K. Zlotnikov,
Ed. Prof. À. Melkumova. All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection, Russia, 2006.ã.

Averagely, according to results of all performed trials, treatment with Albit increased
the yield of spring wheat by 2.9 centners/hectare (16.4%). Average extra
yield due to Albit was 2.1 centners/hectare in Altay krai, by 1.2 centners/hectare in Buryatia,
3.6 centners/hectare in Kemerovo oblast, 4.4 centners/hectare in Kursk oblast, 3.8 centners/hectare
in Lipetsk oblast, 2.9 centners/hectare in Penza, Saratov oblasts and in Primorye krai, 3.3
centners/hectare in Ryazan oblast, 0.4 centners/hectare in Tuva. Albit provides considerable
relative yield increase in cases of both high and low original productivity levels.

Albit demonstrated high Biological Efficiency (BE) against the following diseases
of spring wheat: 81.7% against powdery mildew, 59.2% against root rots, 51.2% against Septoria
leaf spot, 50% against kernel black point, 46.4% against brown rust, 79.0% against stinking smut,
48.5% against loose smut, 46.4% against Helminthosporium rot, 43.4 against Fusarium head scab,
40.4% against Fusarium wilt. Fungicidal activity of Albit is detected at the disease prevalence
(P) level of 2-100% and disease development (R) of 1-60%. Albit is officially registered in Russia
as a fungicide against root rots, brown rust, septorioses and powdery mildew of
spring wheat.

Besides yield increase and disease control, Albit increases germination ability,
accelerates germination and changes of phenological stages, increases productive
stem density, total and productive tillering, ear length, number of seeds
in ear and weight of seeds, total protein and
gluten content in grain (Table 1), improves rootage (lenght
of roots and formation of secondary roots ) and drought resistance. Ability
of Albit to increase
drought resistance, and to accelerate
maturing of wheat is especially important and was most clearly
visible in regions of continental climate, such as Kurgan oblast (1997, 1998,
2000, 2001), Buryatia (2003) and Tuva (2001).

Application recommendations. Recommended full
treatment of spring wheat with Albit includes presowing seed
treatment (application rate of working solution 10 L/t) and
double foliar spraying (BBCH
20–40 and BBCH 50–70). The second foliar treatment may be also conducted at
the booting stage – stage of flag leaf (in this case, decrease of gluten content
may occur despite of yield increase). For spring wheat of northern regions
and if vegetating season is wet, 2nd spraying should be abolished. Àpplication
rate of working solution: 200–300 L/ha (ground sprayers), 50–100 L/ha (aviation
sprayers). It is reasonable to apply Albit together with fungicides (full or
halved dose) during the presowing seed treatment and with herbicides, liquid
fertilizers or insecticides during spray treatments. Seed treatment with Albit
in case of presence of smut or other internal diseases must be performed jointly
with chemical fungicide treatment. Recommended application rates of Albit are:
40–100 mL/t, 30–40 mL/ha. The higher rate of Albit (100 mL/t for seed treatment
or 40 mL/ha for foliar spraying) is used for control of phytotoxic effect of
protectants and prolonged immunization of plants during vegetation season.
Presowing seed treatment is most important
kind of treatment; it makes up 50–60% of total effect of Albit. First foliar
spraying is also highly efficient (BBCH 20–40). The second
foliar spraying is just a useful addition to first two treatments and aimed
mainly on improvement of yield quality. In northern regions of Russia, and
also in cold and humid years, treatments
in second half of vegetation are not recommended.

Since application of herbicides causes stress and intoxication of spring wheat,
they should be used in combination with an antidote (Albit). Results of trials performed in different
regions of Russia demonstrate that Albit used in mixes with herbicides can effectively relieve herbicidal
stress of spring wheat, while effectiveness of
herbicides remains intact. Combination of Albit with
insecticides is also quite effective. For example, application of Albit together with
insecticide based on lambda-cyhalothrin on spring wheat in Pushkinskoye Experimental Farm (Nizhniy
Novgorod oblast) decreased diseases- and pests-caused yield losses averagely by 30% comparing to control
treated with pure insecticides (Table 1).

In the conducted field trials economical or biological effectiveness of Albit was not inferior
to that of of formulations based on Pseudomonas aureofaciens and its metabolites,
biologically active compounds from cedar and fir, orthocresoxiacetates, Bacillus subtilis,
tebuconazole, Trichoderma viridae, thiabendazole, flutriafol, cyproconazole, dihydroquercetin,
triterpene acids, humates and other analogues.

In the following Table, you can see all
reports on performance of Albit on spring wheat, available in English. For
all available reports, please see corresponding table on Russian
webpage.